Women
Counting Pennies publishes new report stating that inadequate funding may mar the United Nations 2030 agenda to end violence against children
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Jul 10, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE 2030 agenda of the United Nations, UN, to End Violence against Children is under threat. A new report by Counting Pennies, supported by the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Violence against Children, and UNICEF, says ending violence against children is grossly underfunded in international cooperation framework.
The report shows that only a small fraction of official development assistance goes toward ending violence against children. Counting Pennies found that in 2015, total official development assistance, ODA, spending was $174 billion and of that, less than 0.6 percent was allocated to ending violence against children.
Marta Santos Pais, special representative, United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children, said, “While commending states’ commitment to end violence against children, it is deeply worrying that less than US$1.1 billion of ODA is estimated to be spent addressing this critical human rights concern.”
Violence compromises children’s development, health and education and has a high cost for society – up to US$7 trillion a year, worldwide. Because of this, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development now includes a distinct global target to end all forms of violence against children. Ending the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children is also mainstreamed across other parts of this international development agenda.
The report stated that 80 percent of spending on ending violence against children was concentrated among six donors. The estimates in this report suggest that Canada is the largest single provider of ODA to end violence against children, followed by the United States of America and Sweden. Even for these donors, however, the ODA investment in ending violence against children was a relatively small part of their overall ODA investment.
Santos Pais said, “Children’s lives are at stake and the serious consequences of violence can last a lifetime. While governments’ policy priorities may have competing demands on scarce resources, the social and financial costs of inaction are too high.”
Civil society partners that collaborated on this report were World Vision International, SOS Children’s Villages, Save the Children and ChildFund Alliance. The Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children and UNICEF also contributed to the research.
Trihadi Saptoadi, vice chair, executive committee for Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and World Vision Global Leader for Impact and Engagement, said, “Violence against children undermines all aid and development activities. Partnerships, like the one backing this report, are vital in addressing an issue of this magnitude. An end to violence against children is within reach and we will see the greatest impact by working together.”
The report also found that half of all ODA to end violence against children goes to two geographic regions: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Countries affected by conflict and displacement, such as Iraq, Syria and South Sudan, receive the bulk of these investments. Yet, funding to address violence against children in these areas is still lacking.
The study recommends for donors to improve tracking of spending to determine how international development assistance is contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development targets to end violence against children. The report also calls for further research into the amount of domestic resources invested by recipient governments.
It also recommended that individual donors to systematically track spending to end violence against children as a separate category; and for the OECD-Development Assistance Committee database to explore the inclusion of a specific marker. With donors tracking their spending on this issue, it would be possible to monitor the annual contribution of global development assistance to achieving the sustainable development targets to end violence against children.
Santos Pais said, “The world’s agreed priority to ending violence against children needs to be matched by increased ODA investment and by tracking spending on preventing and addressing violence against children. This must happen through both official development assistance and through the mobilization of domestic resources.”
Every five minutes, a child dies as a result of violence. An estimated 120 million girls and 73 million boys have been victims of sexual violence, and almost one billion children are subjected to physical punishment on a regular basis. It is estimated that up to 1 billion children worldwide are exposed to violence every year. Not only are children suffering injury or death as a result of violence, but there are also longer-term consequences beyond the immediate physical or emotional harm.
It is self-evident that violence against children is “fundamentally wrong and is a tragedy for every child affected”. Violence in children’s lives is a fundamental violation of their human rights and goes hand in hand with vulnerability and deprivation, high risk of poor health, poor school performance, and, in some instances, long-term welfare dependency with increased risk of financial and employment-related difficulties.
Children who suffer abuse – or witness violence at home or in the community – are at greater risk of engaging in aggressive and antisocial behaviour at later stages in life, including violent behaviour as adults, sometimes targeted against intimate partners. The impact of violence is often irreversible, damaging the development of the brain, especially in younger children, and severely compromises children’s physical, mental, and social development. Children affected by violence are at increased risk of mental illnesses and anxiety disorders, chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, infectious diseases like HIV, and social problems such as crime and drug misuse.
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